My book blog now has its own home. Please visit me at LYNNE'S BOOK REVIEWS. Of course you're more than welcome to see what's going on in my personal life, but if you want to talk books, that's where I'll be!

All juniors have to do service projects where they'll go once a week to help. At the end of their sophomore year they got to choose where they'll go. I don't remember all the choices there were, but I know one was working with special needs kids and one was working in the city with underprivileged kids. Since Eric doesn't like kids (his words), he picked a nursing home, where he'll work with the elderly. I think he'll be great at that. He's so sweet with old people.

He needs to start thinking about what he wants to major in in college besides basketball, and I found a book at the library called Career Opportunities in the Sports Industry, "featuring more than 80 jobs in: professional athletics and sports teams, business administration, coaching and education, officiating, sports journalism, recreation and fitness, wholesaling and retailing, sports medicine." He read through the whole book and tagged different careers, and said, "I actually got excited about picking a major." So he'll probably choose sports administration. Surprise, surprise. And I'm sure he'll be hitting his grandfathers up for some hockey and baseball contacts. (Isn't that what grandpas are for?)

On the basketball front, he's been practicing with both teams - school and AAU - and working out regularly. His AAU team has a tournament this weekend in Illinois, and next week we head to Kansas City for a four-day tournament.

I finally mustered up the courage to schedule his annual cardiology and echocardiogram appointment for September. It always makes me nervous. All his hard work... I hope he's in the clear, heart-wise, for another year. Again, the genetic testing showed he doesn't have Marfan's, but his aortic root is still bigger than normal so they're keeping an eye on it.

On the personal front, he and Alyssa are still together. I don't have pictures to share, but we're going to do a mini photo shoot soon (right Eric?!)

We're thinking about possibly, maybe, if we can, coming out to California for a family visit in August. It's been waaay too long (since Christmas). If all those summer vacationers would just stay home so we can go standby on Krista's pass, then we'll be good to go. Stay home, people!

Some sad news: A kid from our old neighborhood committed suicide early Saturday morning. He was at the same party as Eric earlier that night. I'm going to a candlelight vigil for him tonight. Eric has basketball practice so he can't go, but he'll go to the funeral on Saturday. The whole high school has 300 kids, so it's small, and everyone knows everyone. It's been tough. He was the neatest, cutest kid, and he played football with Taylor. Before games, he and one or two other players would huddle down on one knee and pray. So sad.

Monday, July 19, 2010

At age 6 he did typical boy things, like climb trees. But not just any tree, 90-foot trees. And he had to be rescued by the fire department.

Also, like most boys he was fascinated with fire. I won't say what he did when he was 7, but it was in the news and had something to do with a house.At 13, he got caught by the city police driving downtown in his dad's Mustang, going the wrong way up a one-way alley. He and his friends were looking for the Stardust Burlesque Club to see Evelyn West and her $10,000 "treasure chest."

Still, knowing that his parents sent him away to summer camp for months at a time really bothered me. How could they? He was just an active, curious kid.

When he was a teenager he was sent off to boarding school. I guess the Principal's request that he not come back for his sophomore year had something to do with it. But what kind of parent does that? Okay, so he messed up a little. He was adventurous and needed a lot of stimulation. He couldn't have been that difficult.

When Larry was 13 he attended Hebrew School to become bar mitzvahed. Among the belongings of his old teacher who passed away was this letter, written to her by a substitute teacher. Someone found it and gave it to Larry last week:

"Larry Lipsitz, one of the worst troublemakers, refused to write one (an apology note)."Summer camp for two months? Boarding school?

Now I get it.

My apologies - and sympathies - (and thanks) to his parents.

P.S. Love you, Honey :) I'm glad you turned out as well as you did.

P.P.S. I'm still cracking up that the teacher kept that letter for so long!

Monday, July 12, 2010

As much as I love going out of town and watching Eric play basketball, it breaks my heart when Larry sends me pictures like this...

and says they've been sitting there waiting for me for hours since I left that morning.

AND

As much as my husband likes to try to make me jealous by sending me pictures of himself with Hooters girls...

I know it really means he's run out of clean underwear and wants to know when I'm coming home.

AND

As much as I think it's important to stay active as one gets older...

You will never find me at 93 years old on a wave-runner like my father-in-law a few weeks ago.

Just sayin'.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chicago Tournament Lowdown:

Eric's team went 3-1. E had 14 points the first game, but he got tired as the games went on...10 pts., 8 pts., 5 pts. He doesn't do well playing three games in one day. The Majestics finally improved as a team, so that's good. They played well together, but as they won and got further into the brackets, the teams got better, and bigger, and I swear they looked older than 16, but whaddya gonna do :)

P.S. The Hooters girl was presenting Larry an award for his Corvette in a car show sponsored by them. He had to do something while I was out of town.

Katrina and Jan (wish I got a better picture of Katie's backyard...it's just beautiful!)

Last night we went to our friend Paul's. Katie's is beautiful, but Paul wins the beautiful backyard prize. Here's his backyard...

Paul built this lake himself, AND the dock, AND his house...

His house...

And he built this bridge from the house to the dock area

Paul's friend Eric getting ready to ride the rope swing into the water. Eric's college friends are Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who created South Park. They created the character Eric after HIM! Isn't that cool? And Eric is hilarious; I can totally see why they created a character based on him.

Eric fishing from the bridge and the girls chatting...

This is the only picture I have of Paul from last night. That's him on the right (below)

Nice view from his top deck. He lives only about 20 minutes from us.

Paul even built the little deck on the left so the kids could swing from the rope from there

That's my week in pictures.

This Friday, Eric and I are driving to Chicago for his basketball tournament - the King James Showcase. He wrote several emails to college coaches telling them that he'll be there. The coaches aren't allowed to contact players until September 1st of their junior year, but there will be over 200 coaches at the showcase. Eric wrote to UCLA, USC, University of San Diego, Cal State Fullerton, Illinois State, University of Illinois, and Mizzou. I don't know if coaches from any of those colleges will be there, but because he wrote to them, they'll start a file on him and hopefully will contact him at some point. Eric's friend Tyler is going to film his games and put together a highlight tape for him. He's done this for other athletes and is really good at it. Most coaches like to watch entire games of players, so we'll send complete game tapes too.

About Me

I'm a married mom with one son, Eric (19), two stepchildren and a baby grandson. I met my husband on a blind date set up by friends. We dated for 10 years before getting married six years ago. I grew up in a small beach town in Southern California and have lived in the Midwest since age 25. I love it here! My passions are reading, sports, and animals. Thanks for stopping by!